1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display panel. More particularly, the present invention relates to a liquid crystal display panel having an opposite positioned non-display area on each side of a display area.
2. Description of Related Art
In step with modern lifestyle of people, video and imaging devices are designed to occupy as little space as possible. Although the conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) has many advantages, bulkiness and radiation are two major factors that go against our demand for portability and safety. Consequently, flat panel displays including the liquid crystal displays, the organic light-emitting display and the plasma display panel have become the most important display devices.
In general, a liquid crystal display can be classified according to light source utilization into the reflective liquid crystal display (LCD) and the transflective liquid crystal display (LCD). The reflective or transflective LCD is primarily used in portable devices such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants. Because a reflective or transflective LCD can utilize the light coming from an external light source, the LCD has a high degree of clarity in an outdoor setting. Furthermore, through the utilization of external light, very little electric power is consumed. Hence, the reflective or transflective LCD is a particularly suitable display for a portable device such as the mobile phone or the personal digital assistant.
FIG. 1A is a top view showing the structural layout of a conventional liquid crystal display panel. FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view of the conventional liquid crystal display panel in FIG. 1A. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the conventional liquid crystal display panel 100 comprises a first substrate 102, a second substrate 104, a liquid crystal layer 118 and a plurality of driver chips 106. The first substrate 102 has an array area 120 underneath the second substrate 104 and two non-display areas 108 on the adjacent sides of the array area 120. As shown in FIG. 1A, the non-display areas 108 is located on the right side and the bottom side of the first substrate 102. The liquid crystal layer 118 occupies the space bounded by the array area 120, the second substrate 104 and the sealing frame 110 surrounding the array area 120 between the first substrate 102 and the second substrate 104. The driver chips 106 are positioned on various driver chip bonding areas 112 inside the non-display area 108 for driving the liquid crystal layer 118 inside the array area 120. Furthermore, the non-display areas 108 also have a few flexible printed circuit film bonding areas 114 for connecting to various flexible printed circuit films 116 electrically.
However, the driver chips are positioned on the left side and the bottom side of the non-display areas of the liquid crystal display. This non-symmetrical setting often produces an awkward outward appearance, especially when the liquid crystal display is used in a cellular phone or a personal digital assistant.
FIG. 2A is a top view showing the structural layout of an alternative conventional liquid crystal display panel. FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of the conventional liquid crystal display panel in FIG. 2A. As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the conventional liquid crystal display panel 200 is very similar to the liquid crystal display panel 100 in FIG. 1A. The conventional crystal display panel 200 also comprises a first substrate 202, a second substrate 204, a liquid crystal layer 218 and a plurality of driver chips 206. The first substrate 202 has an array area 220 and a non-display area 208. One major difference from the aforementioned liquid crystal display is that the non-display area 208 is located on one side of the array area 220. A plurality of driver chips 206 and a plurality of flexible printed circuit films 216 are similarly located inside the non-display area 208. At present, some of the mobile phones or personal digital assistants deploy this panel design to resolve the non-symmetrical problem.
However, when the panel design shown in FIG. 2A is applied to the fabrication of a high-resolution surface layer, the non-display area must provide sufficient area to accommodate all the driver chips. Hence, this type of panel design has definite limitations. In addition, the number of connecting circuits is also large for a high-resolution panel design. Therefore, it is impossible to design a fan-out circuit in the non-display area or else the driver chip bonding area is too large to match the size of a conventional driver chip.